


Tempest

by VulgarAssassin



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angry Kushina, Curious Minato, Drama, F/M, Flirting, Kushina Likes Minato, Naruto Likes Kushina, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23420347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VulgarAssassin/pseuds/VulgarAssassin
Summary: Although he was of Uzumaki blood, Naruto and fuinjutsu did not mesh. A botched replication of the Flying Thunder God technique sends Naruto through space and time; just not the way he expected. Timetravel fic.
Relationships: Namikaze Minato & Uzumaki Kushina & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Am a bit hesitant to post this since it's an earlier work that is a bit sophomoric, but it exists on FF.Net so might as well post it here too.

"Give me my headband back!"

Naruto was thoroughly disgruntled. First he had failed to replicate the Flying Thunder God technique, something he didn't even want to do (Naruto was far from being a fan of fuinjutsu, what with it being, in Naruto's opinion, a slightly more advanced version of calligraphy. And what kind of man needed to learn calligraphy? Not Naruto, that was for sure). Next, the weird seal that he created had drained himself of nearly all his chakra (while seemingly doing nothing at all) and caused him to pass out. When he woke up his chakra had barely recovered, and he had found his hands bound in some weird white chains while some red head chick stared at him. To make matters worse the red head acted extremely hostile towards him, even though she was a leaf kunoichi, and she even took off his headband and forced him to follow her after shouting out some threats and claiming he was a spy. She also somehow created another chain that attached to the ones wrapped around Naruto's wrists, making something of a pseudo-leash, which she would tug periodically.

After some consideration, Naruto realised that the chains on his hands were not normal. Since the girl had materialized some from nowhere it was probably a jutsu and he could not break out of them. Escape jutsus seemed to not work on the chains and Naruto really did not have enough chakra to do anything more than the most basic jutsus. So he, against his will, had to follow the kunoichi.

"No way you imposter! I know you're not a leaf ninja." Naruto wanted to face plant at the girl's accusation. What nonsense was this bitch spouting?

"What the hell? I'm Naruto Uzumaki how could you not know me?" Naruto wasn't prepared for the girl to suddenly stop in her tracks and he ended up slamming his nose on the back of her head.

"Itaiii, what are you doing?" Naruto couldn't even rub his sore nose. The girl turned around and glared at the blonde ninja. Naruto quickly glanced over her features, trying to identify the ninja. She was about half a head shorter than himself and look about the same age. She had short red hair that framed her face and accentuated her emerald eyes, which were currently fixated on him with an icy cold stare. She wore a standard long sleeved black shirt with a flak jacket on top and standard black pants. Her headband was displayed proudly on her forehead, portraying the Konoha leaf symbol.

Naruto also noticed that she had a few nicks on her face and hands. He could see that she was dirtied and somewhat tired. The smell of sweat and a tang of blood surrounded her. The kunoichi had probably just came back from a mission. Since she was alone and she had probably been involved in some sort of combat, she was either a genin whose team went ahead of her or were killed (probably very unlikely) or she was ranked chunin or higher.

Finally, not that it really mattered, Naruto found the girl quite pretty.

The girl finally spoke, her voice harsh, "You fucker. You think you can infiltrate Konoha by pretending to be a member of my clan? I should castrate you right now. But don't worry, the interrogation unit will have you singing like a canary." The girl was struggling to contain herself from striking Naruto and her body was visibly shaking in her repressed rage. Naruto, on the other hand, was beyond confused. The girl began to walk again pulling Naruto along.

"Your clan? What are you talking about? I'm the only Uzumaki s'far as I know. And you think I'm a spy or something? Is that a fucking joke? I've lived in Konoha my whole life. I've never seen you around before. Maybe you're a spy!" Naruto nearly stumbled as the girl stopped again. The girl once again turned around and stared at Naruto. While Naruto probably should have been thinking about how to escape or of how to convince her he was a Leaf ninja, he instead decided to check out the redhead again.

In his defense this was the type of thing ero-sennin did all the time.

Naruto's head reeled to the side as the kunoichi's struck him across the face.

"Who's the spy asshole?" The girl seriously wanted to trounce the dumb looking blonde but since she had already captured him it would be against the Konoha code. It would be up to the interrogation unit to decide what to do with him.

Still no one would say anything about a little love tap.

"Bitch." The boy glared at the girl as he spat blood at her feet. Satisfied with the blow and the frustrated look on the blonde, the kunoichi turned around and walked again, harshly tugging on the chains to get the other ninja to follow.

The two walked in silence for a while, both stewing in their own thoughts. The kunoichi was surprised by the authenticity of the Leaf headband the boy had. To her eye it looked as legitimate as they come. Either the creator was amazing at forgeries or it was an actual Konoha headband that someone had stolen, maybe from a dead Konoha-nin body. She contemplated where the boy could have came from. Iwa? Kiri? Maybe Kumo, she heard blonde hair was semi-common there.

She let a frown cross her face as the thought that he may be an actual Konoha shinobi passed her mind, but there was absolutely no way. Since she wanted to be Hokage, or at least help Minato become Hokage, she had decided to memorize as many faces of Konoha-nin as she could and she thought she did a damn good job.

She quickly glanced back at the boy behind her. At the very least there was no way she wouldn't know a shinobi who looked as similar (although not as handsome, she thought with a smirk) as Minato. Also he had the audacity of claiming he was from the Uzumaki clan, and she damn well knew there was no one by the name of Naruto Uzumaki in her clan, let alone anyone in her clan that looked like this boy. So she was absolutely certain that this was some imposter or spy trying to invade Konoha. Oh once Minato heard about her capture of an enemy spy he would surely see how awesome she was and ask her out on a date!

With the lull between them, Naruto had been able to clear his mind and ponder about his situation. First he realised he was somehow in the Fire Country and, specifically, headed towards Konoha. He did not understand this as he and Jiraiya were near Yuga, the village of hot water. How on earth had he ended up near Konoha? Possibly the Thunder God had worked and somehow had displaced him all the way near Konoha. Considering his drought of chakra and the fact that Jiraiya had told him before that there were still some Thunder God seals scattered around Konoha's vicinity, this might actually be a strong possibility. But then who was this girl and why didn't she know who he was?

Perhaps he was under a genjutsu? Yuga was relatively peaceful area and Naruto always kept some random shadow clones in hiding while he was training, just in case he got ambushed. But he couldn't strike out the possibility that he was trapped in a genjutsu. The biggest factor that went against this being a genjutsu was how amazingly visceral everything was. It was too realistic to be a genjutsu, even Kurenai-sensei couldn't pull something like this off. Maybe Itachi could but Naruto doubted this was his style. Also if it was Itachi, Naruto would probably either be dead, captured or saved by Jiraiya, so he doubted Itachi would need to keep him in a genjutsu for so long.

Whatever the case may be, he had somehow ended up in Konoha, or what appeared to be Konoha.

Since had sorted out his thoughts he decided there was no point staying silent when he could be poaching information from the kunoichi in front of him.

"Oi," Naruto's jaw still stung a bit but he ignored it, "what's your name?" The girl didn't even glance at him. Naruto clucked his tongue. "Oi, don't be like that. We're both Konoha-nin."

The girl shook her head and snorted. "If it'll shut you up, imposter, then my name is Kushina Uzumaki. So don't you dare try and call yourself an Uzumaki again."

Naruto frowned, this was just way too weird. However as he saw Konoha's gates come into sight he knew he would get answers soon. "Kushina, Kushina." Naruto rolled the name around in his mouth. It was quite nice. "Nice name, it's pretty."

Maybe he had hung around ero-sennin too much because, for a brief moment, he contemplated trying to seduce the kunoichi to try and get his answers. He squashed that idea almost as soon as he thought of it.

The red head, however, just snorted again.

"So Kushina-chan why do you think I'm an imposter?" He could see the redhead twitch at his comment.

"Don't call me Kushina-chan! And why would I tell you? You think I'm dumb or something? I know you're trying to bait me." Naruto didn't reply. Things were never easy for him, were they?

"Say these chains are pretty neat." Naruto made a show of jangling his chains, "Made'em from chakra right? Maybe you could teach me how to do it as well, as compensation, when you find out I'm actually from the Leaf."

"Even if you are somehow a Leaf ninja, which you're not, I couldn't teach you it. That jutsu is unique to me and everyone in Konoha knows it. So thanks for convincing me you're an imposter." The girl turned and gave the blonde a smirk causing the shinobi's eyebrows to twitch in annoyance.

"I keep telling you I'm from the Leaf goddamit. And I've never seen you in my life either. Once baa-chan finds out about this she'll relieve you from active duty, eh? If you let me go and bow down to me and call me Naruto-sama for the rest of your life I'll ask her to forgive you. And give me back my headband!"

At this point Kushina made a decision to start ignoring the other ninja, since he was spewing out nonsense. Naruto continued to talk, trying his best both to extract information about what was going on as well as convince her that this was a huge mistake, but to no avail. The emerald eyed girl remained mute.

After sometime the pair passed through the Konoha gate checkpoint, where Naruto noted the he did not know who the two ninja on duty were, but that those two knew the girl who held him as a prisoner. Before Naruto even had time to scan the area around him, a glaring error in logic hit him in the face.

"Oi Kushina-chan why are there only three heads on the mountain?! Where are the other two?!" Naruto could not believe what was happening. This had to be a genjutsu. Or maybe he was drugged? Or maybe this was a weird dream?

While the Kushina knew the blonde boy was speaking nonsense, probably trying to confuse her (his deception techniques were terrible, she thought), he sounded so unbelievably sincere and confused that she decided to answer his stupid question.

"Listen, baka, there have only been three Hokage. If you're gonna try and infiltrate us, at least know that, yeah?" The blonde gave the girl the most ridiculous expression she had ever seen. As if she had told him babies came from storks or something. Just as she was about to pull the dumfounded boy towards the interrogation building, a voice called out to her.

"Kushina-san, back from your mission already?" Kushina felt the back of her neck heat up as her crush waved at her. The young man looked as handsome as ever. Even though she found it unsettling, looking at Minato just reinforced the similarities between the imposter and her crush. They had striking differences as well but they could have been brothers, or at least cousins.

"Oh, Minato, what's up? I was ju-"

"Minato?! As in Minato Namikaze?!" Naruto stared at the other blonde with his eyes stretched so wide they could have possibly popped out of his head.

"Shut up you imposter! And don't interrupt me!" Kushina gave Naruto a swift kick to the knee but the blonde did not even flinch, his entire being fixated on the other blonde.

"Uh don't do that Kushina-san...um yes I'm Minato Namikaze. I'm don't think I know who you are though?" Minato eyed the stranger in front of him, not sure what to make of his outburst.

"Minato, this guy had a leaf headband but have you ever seen him be-"

"This is a fucking genjutsu." Naruto voice sounded distraught. With a shake of his head, Naruto dug into the last dregs of his chakra, the small amount still enough to display a physical manifestation outside of his body. The other two ninja tensed up at the blonde's unexpected usage of chakra. Kushina especially so as she had found Naruto letting out only an extremely light chakra signature when she had stumbled upon him.

"I knew he was a spy!" Kushina growled as she moved to intercept Naruto in the middle of his technique, but Naruto already released the chakra. The redhead stumbled back from the force of the chakra that was released, confused as to why the boy had not released an offensive jutsu. Minato was startled by the fact the boy had released enough raw chakra to physically blow back Kushina a little bit. And Naruto was straight up dumbfounded.

"It...it's not...a genju..." Naruto couldn't finish his sentence as he fell over, forced unconscious by the strain of chakra exhaustion.

Minato and Kushina stared at the unmoving body for a brief moment. Kushina finally went up to Naruto and gave him a kick in the arm.

"Kushina-san!"

Kushina ignored Minato's protest. "Looks like he's knocked out. We should take him to interrogation."

"Maybe we should take him to the hospital? He seems to have suffered from chakra exhaustion." Kushina stared at Minato blankly.

"Why should we do that Minato? He's obviously a spy or something! Besides he tried to use a jutsu on me!"

"Kushina-san, his hands were bound there was no way he would have been able to form any jutsu that could have hurt you. Besides-"

"Don't get soft Minato! This is war time, he could be a real threat!"

The two continued to bicker as Naruto took a reprieve from his absurd situation.

It would be a brief one.


	2. Chapter 2

In the deep recesses of his mind, Naruto came to a startling realization.

No cage, no malevolent chakra, no hulking beast.

He was alone.

"Ah shit."

And, he loathed to admit it, he was somewhat lonely.

* * *

Naruto stirred from his slumber, noting that he was confined in a small containment cell, two guards watched him in silence. The room was small and there seemed to be about five cells across from him and he estimated there would be five, including his own, on his side. One of the guards left the room, probably to inform the person in charge of interrogation. Naruto noticed that his hands were still locked, this time in standard cuffs. If he wanted he could break out of them but then an alert would be put out and Naruto doubted he would be able to escape without seriously harming or killing people, which he had absolutely no intentions of doing.

The guard returned and motioned to the other one.

"Alright kid, come with me." Naruto obeyed and followed the guard's lead. They walked from the containment cell to another enclosed room. Naruto was forced to sit in a chair that was in front of a small table and was told to wait. One guard left and the other stayed in the corner of the room, watching the blonde shinobi.

Naruto considered his predicament and come to a conclusion he couldn't quite believe. He had some evidence to support his cause but he didn't know if it was enough. And even if it was enough he wasn't sure if he could believe it even if it was true. Either way Naruto decided he would try and gather more info.

"Hey, what is the date?" The guard stared in silence, maybe trying to intimidate the boy, before replying.

"It's October fifth."

"Eh, what about the year?" This time the man twitched a bit in annoyance and kept silent. Naruto sucked his teeth.

"I'm being serious man. I think I might of hurt my head or something. What's the year?"

The man sighed but answered this time.

Naruto blinked, processing the information. Nodding his head slowly he asked the guard, "Are you fucking with me?"

The guard stared at him blankly. "What did you say?"

"I want to know if you are fucking with me? Is that the actual year?" Naruto spoke calmly.

"You want me to come over there and bash your head in? Maybe you'll remember the date that way?" The guard growled at the boy before muttering obscenities under his breath. A hush fell over the two ninja. Naruto's mind toiled, finding his comprehension of his situation to be utter bullshit.

"Hey, what do you...what do you know about the Kyuubi no kitsune?" This time the guard maintained a tight lip and a stone face but Naruto was aware of the miniscule physical reaction the guard unconsciously displayed. Naruto understood that the guard knew about the Kyuubi and that it probably had something to do with Konoha.

Naruto had never bothered to think about it before, but could it be that the Kyuubi was involved with Konoha before its sealing within Naruto?

Naruto felt his head throb. This was far too much to consider in such a small amount of time.

Eventually the door opened to reveal a young looking woman with strict features. She wore a long black jacket as well as black gloves and boots. Her black hair was pulled into a mid length pony tail. The guard stood attention and gave her a salute. The woman replied with a small nod before focusing on the blonde prisoner.

"Go wait outside, I will handle this." The woman with her gaze leaving Naruto.

"Yes ma'am." The guard bowed, shooting Naruto a dirty glare before moving to exit the room. Naruto retaliated by sticking out his tongue at the shinobi. The woman made no reaction to the exchange, simply sitting down in the chair across from the prisoner.

"Now, boy, I hear you call yourself Naruto Uzumaki. Could you please explain to me why you would want to impersonate a clan with such strong ties to Konoha?" This was news to Naruto, he didn't know that he was really a part of a clan, let alone one with strong ties to his village.

"That's because that is my name and I'm not trying to impersonate anyone! What can I do to prove that to you?" Naruto's irritation with the question was apparent in his tone.

"Where are you from? Kiri? Suna? If you tell us of your own free will we won't need to harm you. You could even live a peaceful life here as a POW." Naruto's blood boiled a little due to the woman simply glossing over his statement but he knew better than to aggravate a Konoha interrogator.

"I'm from Konoha." Naruto answered through clenched teeth. The woman remained stoned faced.

"You say you are a Konoha-nin? What is your serial number?"

Naruto felt heat rise to his neck and cheeks, "I, uh, I don't quite recall, y'know? So many numbers and stuff." Naruto replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"Then at least tell me what you were doing, unconscious, in between Konoha and Miho?"

"See, here's the thing, I wasn't supposed to be anywhere near Konoha or Miho. I was with ero-sen- uh, I mean Jiraiya, all the way in Yuga, you know how he always wants to peep on girls and stuff, but I wa-" The woman banged her fist on the table cutting Naruto off.

Her face remained calm, but her words came out venomously, "You dare call yourself a member of Konoha and openly mock one of the sannin? Is this how you want to prove to me that you are not a spy?"

Naruto blinked a few times, absorbing what the woman had said. "Wait a minute... don't tell me you don't know that he's a mega pervert?"

"Regardless of whether he is a pervert or not, that is no way to talk about the Toad master."

"Oh good," Naruto let out a sigh of relief, "So you do know he is a pervert."

The interrogator forced herself not to let her annoyance show on her face. However she closed her eyes for a moment to regain her full composure after dealing with the foolish blonde. To her surprise, her prisoner spoke up before her.

"To tell you the truth, I think something is crazy is going on...and I don't think any of my answers will match your questions. I want to be cooperative, y'know? So how about you get a Yamanka in here so we can both get the answers we want?" The dark-haired kunoichi's eyebrows shot up at the suggestion. For a POW to request at mind reader...that was unheard of. It was well known how fragile the mind could be and even skilled Yamanaka's could accidently scar the mind while gathering information through their Memory Link jutsu. Unlike reading minds, the memory link allowed mind readers a quick glimpse into the full life of another being. The drawbacks could be severe, however, with the target's memories being erased, or at worse, leaving them in a catatonic state.

"Boy, do you even understand what kind of consequences there could be?" She could not believe that his boy knew what he was getting into. However his eyes revealed his determination.

"Oi don't worry about me lady, nothing's gonna happen to me. Just make sure you get me, uh damn, what was his...Oh! Get me a guy named Inoichi."

"You, how do you...you're quite unpredictable. Unpredictable and unbelievable." The interrogator's face morphing into an expression of utter perplexity.

Naruto just grinned brightly. 

* * *

"Well, shit." Naruto took in the sight of the boy in front of him. Young, slim, blonde. Maybe eleven, or twelve or thirteen at most.

The young Yamanaka gave a curt bow to the older woman, "Morino-san." Naruto's perked up a bit, something about the name was familiar but he couldn't quite recall from where.

"Inoichi, you know why you're here?"

The boy hesitated a bit before replying, "To perform the Mind Walk jutsu." The woman nodded and tilted her head towards the chair. Inoichi sat down and gave a quick glance over the other blonde in front of him.

"So, what is your name?" Inoichi knew it was a moot point, he would find out soon anyway, but it felt like the proper thing to do.

"I'm Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki. Is this your first time doing the mind walk?"

Inoichi's mouth twitched slightly, "Yes, this would be my first attempt on a human." Inoichi's voice was low, just above a whisper.

Naruto smiled gently, "Don't worry, you'll do great. Believe it!"

Inoichi felt perturbed by the total committal of trust by a stranger, a prisoner of war at that, but he also felt an odd sense of determination to make sure the mind walk was a success.

Inoichi took a second to compose himself, "Are you ready Uzumaki-san?" Naruto nodded. The Yamanaka hands flew through several hand seals before settling on Ram. He then clasped his hands together and flexed the palms toward Naruto.

"Mind Walk jutsu!"

For world for both blondes turned black.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto sat in his cell, meditating. He really had nothing better to do since the Mind Walk jutsu performed by the young Yamanaka. As far as Naruto could tell, it went well. Inoichi being inexperienced with the technique caused the jutsu to last a very short time. Enough to confirm Naruto’s story, but not enough to search through Naruto’s memories in detail. He knew Inoichi told Morino everything he saw, and he guessed that the interrogator and the mind reader would be telling the Hokage about it now.

All he could do was to hope the old man believed him.

“Boy,” one of the guards began opening the cell “You are going to see the Hokage now. Make sure to be on your best behaviour.”

“Yes, sir.” Naruto stood up and followed the guard as they approached another door that was both guarded and locked. The guard walking with Naruto gestured to the other guard to unlock the door. The door opened to a set of stairs that Naruto and his guard took. Reaching the top of the stairs, Naruto noticed an insignia on the walls.

The fan of the Uchiha.

Naruto stopped and gawked for a moment, but his guard nudged him forward. The two passed through a room with many people in it. They all seemed busy with one task or another. Naruto happened to catch a glimpse of the back of one of the customized vests one of the ninja was wearing. It had the kanji for police on it, and again the Uchiha sign.

A time with a thriving Uchiha clan. Sasuke would love to be here, Naruto thought wistfully.

Leaving the building, it was dark out and the moon was full and bright. Naruto realized the police station must have been in the Uchiha’s district, because nothing immediately outside the building looked very familiar. However, he could see the Hokage building standing in the east, and the faces of three Hokage displayed proudly on the mountain top right behind it.

It felt incredibly weird to Naruto.

The guard and captive reached the Hokage building in no time. Naruto stood in front of the wooden door he had been through countless times before.

Or, in a strange way, you could consider this the first time he would enter the Hokage’s room.

“Go ahead.” The guard opened the door for him. Naruto entered the familiar room. Staring ahead, Naruto sucked his breath involuntarily.

Sitting at the desk, not dressed in traditional Hokage garb, but rather in a black battle jumpsuit, was Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Old man third.

To Naruto, he appeared so young, there were no wrinkles marring his tan face. His dark brown hair had some marks of grey littered about, but Naruto doubted it was from any signs of aging, but more likely the stress of being Hokage. Compared to how Naruto remembered the old man, he only sported a goatee with no beard.

If the man wasn’t looking at Naruto with such a severe expression, Naruto might have started crying right there.

Glancing around the room quickly, Naruto noticed that the Morino was there as well as another ninja Naruto assumed to be an aide for the Hokage. He stood behind the third Hokage where Shizune normally might for Tsunade.

“Naruto Uzumaki, is it?” The third’s voice was calm and steady, but completely neutral. Not the warm, and grandfatherly texture Naruto was used to from the man.

“Yes, sir. That is my name.”

“I have heard an incredulous story about you from Inoichi-san. But I would like to hear about it from you before I ask any questions. Would you indulge me so?”

“Uh yes Hokage-sama. I, uh, I believe I am from the future, and I accidently distorted time while practicing a space-time jutsu. I-”

“Excuse me” The Hokage interrupted Naruto’s synopsis of events. “Space-time jutsu you say?”

“It’s called the Flying Thunder God.” Naruto began to explain. He noticed that the three ninja all physically reacted to the name of the jutsu, but no one interrupted him this time around. “I don’t really understand how it works, but its supposed to send you from one location to another. I fu-, I mean I messed it up somehow and I think the seals I replicated had more to do with a time aspect than a spatial aspect.”

Morino and the shinobi unknown to Naruto looked utterly shocked by what the blond shinobi was saying, but Hiruzen just furrowed his brow slightly.

“Naruto-san, how did you come across the Second Hokage’s technique?” Naruto once again just blinked in rapid succession as he processed what he heard.

“I didn’t even know it was his technique, I thought it was the fourth’s.”

“This is absurd, he must be lying Hokage-sama!” The other shinobi grunted in disgust. “His memories must be fak-”

“Homura, that’s enough.” Hiruzen did not even glance at the man known as Homura. Instead he proffered Naruto another question. “Where did you learn the technique Naruto-san? Did this fourth Hokage teach it to you?”

“No, Hokage-sama, the perv-” Naruto noticed the glare he was getting from Morino and quickly corrected himself. “The Toad Sage Jiraiya taught me the basics, but I had to reference quite a few fuinjutsu texts since he did not know the full technique.”

“Naruto-san, while Yamanaka-san did confirm to us in his own words that you were not lying about the future, or at the very least your memories were showing you came from a time different to us…so many of these details are just outrageous for us to believe. You know the Flying Thunder God you claim, one of our most highly classified skills, but do not even know its origins. You claim to know my student, but I am certain he does not know you, and furthermore I know he would not know how to perform this technique. Do you see where I am coming from Naruto-san?”

“I- Lord third, please, I don’t know much else I can do to prove that I’m telling the truth. This is an outrageous situation to being with! I just want to go home, back to my time I mean.”

“And how would you propose we do that?”

“I’m not to sure, I suppose I would have to learn more fuinjutsu to create something that could send me back.”

“Can you not try to use the same seal you used to appear here?” Naruto hung his head at that remark.

“I don’t remember exactly what I wrote.” Naruto’s voice came out meekly. “I was not to fond of fuinjutsu when I was attempting to replicate the jutsu, so I didn’t really pay attention to what I did.”

Hiruzen shook his head in disbelief. The boy was playing with space and time and did not pay attention? 

“Have a Yamanaka do another Mind Walk and find exactly what you wrote if that is the case.”

Morito talked for the first time since Naruto arrived. “That would be unadvisable sir Homura. Searching for a small detail such as that in the vast data of a person’s memories could result in serious damage to the person whose memories are being searched as well as the Yamanaka who does it. We could probably get a Yamanaka to see if he did attempt the technique, but not what the seals he was using to make the fuinjutsu.”

“Thank you for your input Morino-san, I greatly appreciate it.” Hiruzen stared at Naruto while he pondered what to ask. The young shinobi stared back. The boy had good eyes, Hiruzen thought, pure eyes. Not tainted by malice or even the truths of war.

“Naruto-san, if you are truly from the future, I am sure there is much you could tell us. Things that could save lives and maybe end others. I am not going to ask you to share any such information as who knows what damage it could cause.”

“D-does that mean you believe me?”

“I believe in my ninja, I believe in Inoichi Yamanaka-san, and unless you prove me otherwise, I will choose to believe in you Naruto-san.” Hiruzan smiled at the blond.

Naruto’s face melted into one of pure relief. “Thank you, so much old man thi-” Naruto quickly covered his mouth with an audible slap. He felt killing intent leak out from Morino and Homura, but Naruto corrected himself. “Thank you, so much Lord Hokage-sama.” Bowing his head deeply and hoping he would not get fucked over for his mistake.

“Naruto-san, for now I am going to send you back to the prison cells. Just for the rest of tonight. Tomorrow morning, I will have the proper arrangements for you. Oh, and I don’t think you should speak about this time travel business to anyone else.” It was phrased as a suggestion, but was ultimately a command. 

Naruto thanked the Hokage again and the guard was called in to take him back to the jail cells.

“Hokage-sama, you should have disciplined him for calling you something so disrespectful.” Homura was silently seething. “I also do not think you should believe what he says. The whole thing seems like a farce.”

“Hmmm. And what do you think Morino-san?” The Sarutobi inquired of the interrogator.

“The Yamanaka confirmed from what he says that the boy was not lying and personally...nevermind Hokage-sama.”

“No, please, no matter what it is, I would like to hear it.”

Morino usually did not think foolishly like this, but it was her true feeling about the matter, “I just feel like I can trust him and what he says. There is no reason for it, but earlier, during interrogation, he told me he loves Konoha, and I have come to believe that is true.”

Homura stared at her with unveiled disgust at such an illogical conclusion from the interrogator. The third instead just nodded his head.

Hiruzen closed his eyes and remembered what the young Yamanaka had told him right before he was dismissed.

_“Hokage-sama…just one last thing. I, I know this will sound weird or maybe even disrespectful, although I do not mean it to be so, but if the captive calls you old or something similar, please do not punish him. He, the captive, you are one of his strongest memories…I can’t fully explain it, but I hope you understand.”_

Hiruzen understood, it was affection. A boy he had never met had deep seated affection for him. The Sarutobi was betting a lot on that, he could see it in the boy’s eyes and his words, he just hoped it was also in his heart as well.

* * *

“What the fuck.” The tomato haired kunoichi cussed quietly at the blond. “You should be rotting in a jail cell.” The two of them stood in front of the Hokage’s door, both summoned to meet him. Naruto was not handcuffed this time, according to the Hokage’s orders, but a guard still escorted him there.

“Lovely to see you again Kushina-chan.” Naruto gave her an impish grin. Kushina responded with a hiss and a scowl.

Naruto’s guard ignored both of them.

“Enter!”

Naruto let the kunoichi enter first before following behind her. Kushina took several steps to create distance between her and the blond and proceeded to bow towards Hiruzen.

“Hokage-sama, Homura-sama.” She proceeded to glare at Naruto causing him to bow and mutter his respects as well.

“Kushina-chan, Naruto-san.” The third nodded at them. “Kushina-chan, I know you have some preconceptions about Naruto-san, since you met him in a strange predicament, but I am here to alleviate you of such worries and to ask you to undergo a mission for me.” The kunoichi nodded.

“After investigation, we have found that Naruto-san is indeed an Uzumaki clan member.” Kushina gasped audibly at this. “However, he is an orphan and was raised in a remote area in the Land of Fire that does not truly understand the relations between Konoha and the Uzumaki clan. From his perspective, and of those around him, it seemed as if it was an undistinguishable clan. The headband is an authentic one, and it was a memento from his late father. Do you have any questions Kushina-chan?”

None of this was new to Naruto. He was coached on the impromptu backstory late last night. The red head, however, was baffled by the turn of events. She took a moment to compose herself and think about what to ask.

“He said he was well known in Konoha, what was that about?” Glaring at the blond, daring a good answer out of him.

“Well Naruto-san? What do you have to say?”

“I’m not really a shinobi, but I always wanted to be one. I was just talking big, for no reason. It was stupid of me, especially cause you’re a kunochi yourself. I should have known better to brag like that.”

Naruto hope he didn’t sound to mechanical. He was never a good liar.

He heard Kushina mutter “fucking idiot” under her breath.

“And what about the five faces on the mountain thing?”

“I ate some bad mushrooms and was seeing things at the time. That’s why I fainted as well.”

“And the genjutsu thing?!” Naruto started sweating.

Hirzen, sensing Naruto’s inadequacies in answering the demanding red head, interrupted, “I think that’s enough Kushina-chan. Naruto-san made some mistakes, but for now we can vouch that he came to Konoha with no ill intentions.”

Kushina looked as if she wanted to argue with the Hokage but thought better of it.

“Now, I want to discuss the mission. Naruto-san could you please give us a few moments?”

“Yes Hokage-sama.” Naruto bowed and exited the room.

This was something else that he was already prepped for. Hiruzen would tell Kushina that while he was not seen as a risk, his large chakra reserves plus his “rudimentary” training in shinobi arts and desire to “become” one meant that, until his true strength was discerned, he would need someone to watch him.

A babysitter basically.

Naruto was not sure what the point was, maybe the third really did not trust him, but then why would he tell Naruto about such a plan? It was twisting his mind a bit. Even worse is that he was getting someone who hated his guts to watch him. He bet it was for some dumb reason like they’re both Uzumakis.

Kushina came out of the room, staring daggers at Naruto. Through clenched teeth the told him to go in.

Naruto stood attention in front of the third Hokage again.

“I’m sure you must be wondering why I assigned Kushina-chan to monitor you. First off you are both Uzumakis so would make sense for appearance sake.”

And there it was.

“But, also because Kushina-chan is the most accomplished fuinjutsu artist in Konoha. While books and scrolls may help give you some theoretical applications to help get you back into your time period, I believe you will find much more success discussing such things with Kushina.”

The third was a genius, Naruto thought.

“I understand your relationship is tense at the moment, so do your best to diffuse that tension and get along with her. She will not divulge fuinjutsu techniques from the jump so build a strong rapport with her. It might take a while, but in a way, you have all the time in the world, don’t you Naruto-san.” Hiruzen smiled slyly at the blond who just nodded. “Good luck Naruto.” The shinobi bowed and left the office, hoping the aggressive kunoichi waiting outside would not treat him too roughly.

* * *

“Hey, uh, could we get some food please?” Naruto asked his new guardian. “I haven’t eaten from since I met you.”

“No.” Her response was short, but her tone bordering on venom. It seemed she was displeased with the assignment she was given. Naruto wondered how he could get on her good side. His stomach started to growl, but the red head paid no mind to it, stomping towards their destination, which would be Naruto’s new home.

“Nice weather we’re having.” Naruto attempted some small talk.

“Shut up before I feed you my foot.”

They walked in silence for a few moments, Naruto decided to absorb the different look of Konoha than what he was used to. It looked, while he wouldn’t say shabby, it was not as clean as his Konoha.

His stomach growled once again. “Damn I would kill for some ramen.”

Another stomach growl, but this time it wasn’t from him. The tomato haired kunoichi’s face started staining a similar colour to her hair. Naruto chuckled at the timing, only to be kicked in the shin, and his laugh turned into cries of pain.

* * *

“You know you might not be so bad. I mean you’re probably ninety percent bad, and ten percent not bad, but that’s a lot better than what I thought initially.” After saying that the kunoichi placed the bowl of ramen to her lips and drained the remaining broth.

Naruto could not believe they had bonded over eating ramen. He also could not believe there was another person who could like ramen as much as him. The crazy red head was starting to grow on him!

“Well that’s not a bad start, I guess. Hopefully I can change it, so you think I’m one hundred percent a good guy!” Naruto gave her a thumbs up.

Kushina snorted and pulled out her wallet to pay.

“Oh shit, I don’t have any money.” Naruto guilty grabbed at where his frog pouch would be, but he already knew he had lost it when he landed.

“I know. Hokage-sama has some stuff for you at your new place. I’ll get you this time.”

“Thanks, so much Kushina-chan, let me buy you lunch next time.” Kushina frowned at that.

“No thanks, I’d rather not go on a date with you.” The response bewildered Naruto. He was just trying to be nice.

“It doesn’t have to be a date, we can go as friends!”

“We aren’t friends though. And a guy and a girl getting lunch together is a date, dummy.” Kushina finished counting the money and placed it down on the table. She got up and left the ramen stand. Naruto followed, still perplexed by the kunoichi’s weird reasoning.

“Wait, so we just had a date right now?” Kushina stopped in her tracks, as she realized what she had just implied.

“No! Wait, let me think…” Kushina furrowed her brow.

“Cuz you know, I don’t mind it being a date.” Naruto smiled at her. She shot back a look of disgust.

“No way!”

“Wow, so mean. You could at least pretend to think about it.”

“Not a chance!” Kushina smirked at him. “Anyway, I’ve got it. If a girl asks the guy for lunch, it’s not a date, but if the guys asks the girl out for lunch, then it is a date!”

“You are so weird Kushina-chan, but fine. Next time, ask me out for lunch, and then I’ll pay for it. If that makes you feel better.”

Kushina narrowed her eyes at the blond “…maybe."

* * *

“Well here’s your place.” They stopped in front of a small apartment complex. “I live at the end of the same building actually. So, if you need something you can come and knock.” Kushina pointed to the room at the far end of the floor level of the building. “Anyway, go inside and look around, and I guess I’ll check up on you later, or something like that.”

“Okay, Kushina-chan, thanks a lot.” The blond smiled at her. She stared at his face for a few seconds, eyes seeming to gloss over, before she hummed in acknowledgement and began to walk away. “Wait, Kushina, before you go. I just wanted to say I’m sorry about the way I acted when we met, but I truly want to become a leaf shinobi and help the village out.” It was weird to tell half lies like this, but he hoped his earnestly would shine through.

Kushina scuffed her sandals against the ground, glancing away then landing her eyes on Naruto’s. “I, I guess I’m sorry too. For, like hitting you, and cussing you out, and stuff like that. I don’t know if I really trust you or anything like that, but it wouldn’t be so bad if you are what you say you are, ya know?”

“I won’t disappoint you.” Naruto smiled at her. And for the first time since he had met her, Kushina smiled backed.


	4. Chapter 4

Kushina knocked on the door to Naruto’s apartment. When there was no response, she knocked more aggressively, yelling at the same time.

“Wake up, blockhead!”

The door opened and a groggy Naruto stood before her, clad in only a pair of green boxers. Despite her self, Kushina quickly observed his body. He was nice and lean, compact muscles adorning his frame. Kushina would consider it a nice sight, if not for his ugly mug. In her mind, she swapped Minato’s face onto Naruto’s and appreciated the sight much more.

“Oi, you okay? Got a fever?” Naruto’s voice snapped her from her ogling. He barely placed his hand on her forehead to check her temperature, when she slapped it off. “Ow, what was that for?”

“Don’t touch me, doofus!” Kushina hissed.

“Man, your face was red, I thought you were sick. Sheesh.” Naruto rubbed his injured hand, pouting at the annoyed kunoichi.

“It’s red because you have no shame!”

Naruto looked down at his mostly nude state and laughed. “No way, you’re shy about this? You’re more innocent than I thought, Kushina-chan!” His laughter was abruptly cut short when the red-head kicked him square in the chest, knocking him to the floor. “What the fuck!” Naruto spat through teeth clenched in pain.

“Shut up and get ready, we have places to be.” Kushina told him coldly.

“Fine, you witch.” Naruto stood up and slammed the door in her face before getting ready. He brushed his teeth and took a quick shower before he opened his closet to pick something to wear. Unfortunately, his black and orange jumpsuit was pretty ragged from his warping and needed some tailoring done, at the very least. Moreover, the old man was not sensible enough to equip Naruto’s dresser with any orange clothing. With a sigh, Naruto put on a pair of dark blue pants, a mesh net shirt, and then a black zipper hoodie that had the Konoha symbol on the back. He fastened his shuriken holster and equipment holder onto his pants and placed his new wallet in his pocket.

Stepping outside his apartment, Naruto was greeted with emerald eyes squinted in annoyance.

“Are you a girl? What took you so long?”

“That was barely ten minutes!” Naruto retorted.

“Whatever, we wasted enough time as it is. C’mon, you are getting assessed for your shinobi capabilities today.” Kushina said, already walking away from the apartment complex.

“Oi, that’s a bit sudden, isn’t it?” Naruto asked as he caught up to her stride.

“I was supposed to tell you yesterday, but I forgot.”

“How can you just forget something like that?” Naruto asked, flabbergasted. Kushina just shrugged in response. “Well, can we get some food first. If any fighting is involved, I don’t want to do it on an empty stomach.”

“No.”

“Why not? It’ll only take another ten minutes or so.”

“Because I said so, and you have to follow my orders.” Kushina smirked at the blonde.

“Kami, you can be annoying sometimes.” Naruto sighed in frustration.

“You’re annoying all the time.” Kushina shot back. Naruto found himself smiling at the retort. He wanted to be mad, but something about Kushina’s attitude and banter just melted away his irritations.

‘Ah, maybe I’m a masochist?’ Naruto cringed internally. First Sakura, now this girl. Naruto just hoped it was bad luck.

The training ground was relatively close, it only took the pair a few minutes of walking to reach it. Already waiting were three shinobi. One was a young, brown-haired male, wearing a black standard shinobi outfit with a flak jacket on. Another was kunoichi with black hair, wearing the same thing as the male, but her outfit was a dark blue, almost identical in colour to Naruto’s pants. The final ninja was Minato.

Naruto felt his heartbeat increase as his feelings overwhelmed him. When he thought of the Fourth Hokage previously, he always weighed the positive things about the man much more than the negative impulses Naruto had about him. But, staring at the man face to face, Naruto could not ignore his true feelings. In front of him was the man he adored, who was also the man that ruined his life. This was the man who saved the village Naruto loved. This was the man that made Naruto a pariah from the day he was born. Naruto wanted to punch his face, then ask for an autograph. On closer inspection, Naruto realised Minato looked about the same age as himself and Kushina, maybe sixteen or seventeen at the most. That did not make his feelings any less intense, however.

“Minato!” Kushina cried in delight, “What are you doing here?”

“Good morning, Kushina-san. I’m here as one of the members to assess our new friend’s aptitude.” Minato said nodding at the two of them.

“Hm, you don’t usually do this kind of stuff though?” Kushina questioned. She was very familiar with Minato’s usual tasks and responsibilities.

Minato scratched his head, giving them a sheepish smile. “That’s true…I asked Hokage-sama to allow me to be a part of the observation. Our friend seems quite interesting.”

“I’m not your friend.” Naruto snapped. That seemed to startle the fellow blonde who dropped his smile.

“Don’t talk to Minato like that!” Kushina barked at the boy next to her as she elbowed him in the ribs. Naruto gasped in pain and glared at her but did nothing else.

“Are you guys done chatting? I want to get this over with as soon as possible.” The other man said his hands in his pocket. The kunoichi next to him cleared her throat and stepped forward.

“Hello, it’s Naruto-san, correct?” The dark-haired kunoichi asked. Naruto nodded in reply. “I’m Izumi. As Kushina-san must have told you prior, we are here to test you combat prowess. You will fight with Raichi-kun,” she gestured toward the brown-haired shinobi, “while Minato-kun and I observe. The three of us will evaluate you and send our reports to the Hokage. Do you have any questions?”

Naruto scratched his cheek, eyes screwed shut in thought. “Hmm, the order of this is wrong right? I’m supposed to do another test first, aren’t I?” Kushina looked at him confused, but the other three showed varying degrees of surprise at the question.

“Yes, that would normally be the case, Naruto-san. We would do a general exam based on your understanding of shinobi topics and history, we would then do a psychiatric exam, and then, finally, we would do the combat analysis. However, the Hokage-sama gave the direct order to bypass the prior tests. How did you know about this?”

Naruto shrugged, “I knew a Konoha shinobi, he told me something like this before. It wasn’t something I paid attention to, but now that I’m in this position the information kind of flooded back to me y’know?” This was mostly true, as he had learned this information from Jiraiya a long time ago. Just one of the random subjects they talked about during their treks from village to village. Jiraiya said that if he wanted to be Hokage, Naruto would need to know more than just jutsu, and he spent a lot of their downtime walking by supplementing Naruto with such information.

“I see. Are there any other questions you have?”

Naruto eyes flickered to the young Yellow Flash. “I want to fight him instead.”

Minato pointed at himself, “Who, me?” There was amusement in his voice.

“Stopping causing trouble, Naruto.” Kushina stared daggers at her charge.

“I don’t mind. Less work for me. What say you, Minato?” Raichi drawled, clearly uninterested in the whole situation.

“Are you sure, Naruto-san, I’m quite strong.” Minato said, but he was already taking of his white duster, clearly getting ready for the spar. 

Izumi sighed in exasperation, rubbing her forehead. “Why do I always get the troublesome ones?” She muttered, but it was heard by the entire group. “I suppose I can allow this, unorthodox as it is.”

“Great, I’m going to wipe the floor with you.” Naruto grinned at his fellow blonde, who returned a much gentler smile to him.

“As if. Minato is one of the strongest ninja in the village.” Kushina said proudly.

“Oh, care to make a wager?” Naruto asked, leering at his fellow Uzumaki.

“Like what?”

“I win the spar and you go on a date with me.”

“I-I’m not going to go on a date with you, y-you buffoon!” Kushina sputtered, her face flushing in anger and embarrassment at him mentioning such a prospect in front of her crush.

“Please don’t pressure Kushina-san to do something she doesn’t want to.” Minato interrupted the duo, a frown marring his usually serene face.

“Ah, you’re afraid he’ll lose. I understand.” Naruto mocked the red head, ignoring the other blonde.

“Fuck you! Fine I’ll take the wager. You are going to lose, one hundred percent.” Kushina hissed, her anger causing her to overlook Minato’s concern for her, something she would usually swoon for.

“Whatever makes you sleep at night, Kushina-chan.” Naruto found great enjoyment from teasing the crimson haired kunoichi.

“Wait, why do I get if I win?” Kushina suddenly realising the bet was one-sided.

“What do you want?”

Kushina stroked her chin in thought. “Hmmm, I know! You have to call me Kushina-sama if you lose the spar.”

“Sounds fine to me.” Naruto grinned at the girl.

“Will you two lovebirds stop yapping and get along with the assessment?” Raichi was losing patience.

“I wouldn’t love this guy if he was the last male on the planet.” Kushina retorted dryly.

“Wow, Kushina, I have feelings y’know?” Naruto covered his heart, acting offended.

“Naruto-san…you are quite impertinent.” Minato remarked, his face had a hardness to it that Naruto did not see before.

“I dunno what that means.” Naruto said to the Hokage-to-be with a wolfish grin.

“Oh, the blonde is an idiot, what a surprise.” Kushina snarked. This just made Naruto laugh.

“Oi, you hear that, Minato? We’re idiots!” Naruto continued to cackle at Kushina’s blunder. He could almost _feel_ the heat emanating from the red-head’s cheeks.

“M-minato, I didn’t m-mean, yo-” Kushina began.

“It’s okay Kushina-san, I understand.” Minato gave her a tender smile, causing her cheeks to become even darker red.

“Alright, you womanizer, lets get this show on the road.” Naruto started stretching in anticipation for the fight.

“Yes, finally!” Raichi exclaimed. “Izumi, explain the rules already.”

The dark-haired kunoichi was pinching the bridge of her nose, at her wits end by the antics of the shinobi she had to monitor. She sighed deeply, then began speaking. “Alright, Naruto-san, Minato-kun, first you will each state the jutsu that you will use for the spar. If there is anything we deem too extreme to use, we will tell you so and you must refrain from using such a jutsu. We know Minato will not try such a thing, so this is more for your benefit, Naruto-san. After notifying the jutsu, we will begin the actual spar. It will be on a five-minute timer. Weapons are allowed, which includes kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, etc., as well as ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu. I am a medical expert, so if there are any major injuries, I will be on standby to heal them, and I may stop the fight if I need to. Any more questions Naruto-san?”

“Nope! Should I state my jutsu first?” The blonde Uzumaki asked.

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Alright, I’ve got Transformation jutsu, Substitution jutsu, Shadow Clone jutsu, Multi Shadow Clone jutsu and Rasengan.” Naruto listed off his jutsu. Man, it was a pretty feeble list, he thought. He doubted he could use Summoning as well, considering his name would not be on the scroll.

“Rasengan, what’s that?” Kushina asked. She found the blonde boy’s arsenal to be mediocre, even with Shadow Clone, but she never even heard of the last jutsu before.

“Yes, Naruto-san, can you please demonstrate.” Izumi asked. All four ninja paid rapt attention to Naruto. None of them heard of a jutsu called Rasengan.

“Alright, here goes.” Naruto raised his right-hand pouring chakra into his palm, he added rotation and power, a ball of pure chakra forming. He knew could not get the containment right, not without his other hand at the least, or a clone using both hands to make his life easier, but that was okay in this instance. If he used a true Rasengan, they would not allow it in the spar. Naruto decided he would just use this weaker version for the fight. Beating the Fourth Hokage with his own jutsu…it sent a tingle down Naruto’s spine.

The four other shinobi seemed impressed, but Minato especially so. His eyes were wide, staring at the jutsu with his undivided attention.

“I’m going to use it on the tree over there.” Naruto told them before he sprinted at the tree. “Rasengan!” Naruto shouted, thrusting his palm into the tree trunk. The jutsu tore into the bark, carving into the tree and leaving a palm-sized spherical hole halfway into the tree. Naruto knew at full strength, his Rasengan would blast straight through the trunk of the tree, but this was alright for an unfinished product.

“That…that was amazing. A jutsu that doesn’t require hand seals, yet the shape and form is perfect! Not to mention the power output for such a thing. Furthermore, it was raw chakra! That means, theoretically, one could funnel even more chakra into and create a larger attack.” The four ninja stared blankly at Minato, as the blonde gushed on about the technique he just saw. “I’m extremely impressed, Naruto-san. Did you create that jutsu yourself?”

Naruto found it supremely weird to see the creator of the technique heap on so much praise for it without knowing it was his own invention. “No, my sensei taught it to me.”

“It wasn’t _that_ cool.” Naruto heard Kushina mumble under her breath. It made him laugh internally, if only she knew, she would probably fall over backwards to take back that statement.

“I think that jutsu is too dangerous for the spar. I motion to strike it. Do you two concur?” Izumi asked her fellow testers. Naruto frowned and crossed his arms. He purposely did not use the full power of the Rasengan, and they were still going to ban it? Yeesh.

“No, I want him to use it.” Minato said, a glint of excitement in his eyes.

Raichi shrugged. “If Minato says it’s okay, then let the kid use it.”

Izumi shook her head but did not try and argue. “Fine, Minato-kun, what jutsu will you be using?”

“I think…Substitution and Body Flicker.”

“That’s it? Aren’t you taking this a little lightly?” Naruto spat angered at the apparent disrespect the Hokage-to-be was showing him.

“Naruto-san, you are only use a few jutsu as well, so you should know it is not the amount of jutsu you have, but how you use them.” Minato spoke in a manner as if a teacher was speaking to a student. Naruto did not think his look-alike was mocking him, but it sure felt like it.

“Can we get started now?” Naruto asked Izumi.

“Yes. Raichi-kun, Kushina-san, let us give them space to spar.” She and the brown-haired shinobi moved several feet away from the blonde duo.

“Good luck.” He heard Kushina say as she left.

“Woah, thanks!” Naruto exclaimed with a smile at the unexpected well wishes from the red-head. She simply shrugged.

“Minato doesn’t need luck to wipe the floor with you.” She smirked as she left him to join the other observing shinobi. His smile turned upside down.

“Hmph, I’ll show her.” Naruto muttered to himself.

“Are you two ready?” Izumi called out.

“Yes!” Both blondes answered together.

“Begin!”

Naruto pulled out a kunai and threw it at Minato. Naruto strafed to the right whilst pulling out three shuriken to attack Minato’s left side. Minato deftly caught the kunai ring on his index finger, spinning it to get a proper grip then deflecting the shuriken that Naruto threw. Minato gauged Naruto’s movements and threw the kunai back to intercept it. The whiskered blonde noticed in the nick of time, halting his movement and the kunai just grazed his cheek, leaving the shallowest of cuts. Naruto saw Minato disappear before his eyes.

‘He body flickered…behind me?!’ Naruto thought as he sensed movement behind him. Naruto did not have time to gawk as Minato already caught the kunai he threw and was swinging it at Naruto’s back. Naruto summoned a shadow clone that was just able to move Minato’s arm, so the attack sliced his shoulder instead of planting itself in his back. Naruto dropped to his knees, planting his hands on the ground, and swung his leg around, trying to sweep Minato’s feet, his clone had already jumped to avoid it.

Minato was knocked off his feet, but he leveraged himself by planting a hand on the clone’s shoulder and then twisting his body so he could kick Naruto away. He slammed the kunai into the clone’s body, dispelling it. Naruto rotated in the air, landing on his feet, but the kick had enough force that he slid a few feet even after landing. Naruto quickly tried to summon a shadow clone but was forced to dodge a punch from the man who would become the Yellow Flash.

‘Might as well call him that now.’ Naruto thought dryly, as he parried another punch using his forearm, quickly twisting it so he could grip Minato’s wrist. Naruto punched at Minato’s face with his other hand, but his fellow blonde ducked his head away from the punch. Naruto grunted as he felt Minato knee him in the stomach but did not let go of his wrist. Instead the whiskered blonde brought the hand he used to punch back from behind Minato’s head and used it to grasp his head and bring it forward. Naruto met Minato’s nose with his forehead, delivering a crushing headbutt.

Minato yelled from the pain and Naruto let go of his wrist to punch him in the jaw, Naruto quickly summoned clones that each kicked Minato upwards and Naruto jumped off the back of one to meet Minato at the apex of his launch. Naruto formed a single-handed Rasengan to slam into his opponent’s abdomen when Minato body flickered away. Naruto let the Rasengan dissipate as he landed on the ground a few feet away from Minato.

“Kami, how fast are you?” Naruto asked, unable to hide how impressed he was at his sparring partners speed. And to think, he did not even know the Flying Thunder God yet. The other blonde did not reply, and instead gingerly rubbed his nose. Naruto’s clones rushed Minato, but they were quickly dispatched as Minato jumped over the first one to stab the second one trailing it. After that Minato parried the third clone and threw him at the first clone, knocking them both out.

‘Okay, time for some Uzumaki trickery!’ Naruto thought as he summoned two shadow clones. He threw a smoke bomb on the ground, obscuring the views of the observers and Minato. Instead of approaching, Minato wrapped an explosive tag around a kunai and threw it into the cloud of smoke.

“Oh shit!” Naruto seemed to notice the tag quickly and rushed out of the smoke with one of his other bodies. One was holding a windmill shuriken and the other body had a Rasengan in its hands. Naruto flung the shuriken at Minato while running away from the area to avoid the impending explosion. The body with the Rasengan also rushed Minato, trailing the shuriken. Minato ducked under the shuriken first, letting it fly by harmlessly.

“Rasengan!” The other body cried out as it thrust the ball of chakra at Minato. Minato was preparing to dodge when he felt an arm hook around his from behind. Minato was already acting however, and he reached backward, grabbing the hoodie of the clone and quickly yanking it with such force that its body swung over Minato’s and took the brunt of the Rasengan’s damage. The raw energy pouring off the Rasengan was enough that Minato felt some pressure damage being done, just from being in proximity to the clone being destroyed, but he knew it paled in comparison to taking a direct hit. While the second clone was forced to finish the technique, Minato swung another kunai at its head, also destroying it.

Minato could hear Naruto kiss his teeth in dissatisfaction from a few feet away.

“Using a clone transformed as a windmill shuriken, very impressive. You almost got me.”

“I would have got a normal person! You’re too damn quick.” Naruto replied, shaking his head, but smiling. The Yondaime was impressive as a teenager. Just what Naruto expected from his inspiration.

Minato pulled out a kunai and Naruto mimicked his action. The two stood, a few feet from each other, muscles tensed, ready to leap out and clash once more. Naruto pumped chakra into the soles of his feet, ready to discharge it and fly at his hero, to try and catch him before he could use his Body Flicker. Naruto pressed against the ground, pushing off.

“Time’s up!”

“Eh?” Naruto called, the distraction causing him to forget to release the chakra from his feet and he stuck to the ground while moving forward, only then releasing the chakra. The end result was an epic face plant.

“Are you okay, Naruto-san?” Minato asked, already standing over the boy, a mild look of concern on his face.

Naruto could hear Kushina chortling even from a few feet away.

Minato offered his hand towards Naruto. The whiskered youth considered knocking it away, but ended up grabbing it and pulling himself up. Naruto couldn’t keep himself from smiling, this was the fourth Hokage after all, it’s not like holding grudges was Naruto’s nature.

“Oh man, too bad I couldn’t get you with the Rasengan, you seemed hella fascinated with it.” Naruto bemoaned, giving the taller blonde a friendly clap on the shoulder.

“Well, I’m more fascinated in what it can do to other people, not myself in particular, Naruto-san.” Minato smiled. “Now I suppose we should head over and see what they have to say about your skills, no?”

“Right.” Naruto walked toward the group, Kushina finally finished her laughter at his expense. “Got a good chuckle in there, Kushina-chan?” Naruto asked the redhead.

“Hey, it’s Kushina-sama now.” Kushina retorted, hands on her hips, a genuine smile on her face.

“Are you dumb?!” Naruto asked hotly, “I was clearly winning!”

“Who’s dumb, you stupid!?” Kushina squawked a trivial insult, glaring daggers at the boy. “On what planet would you call that winning?”

“Kami, why don’t you two get a room and fuck already.” An annoyed Raichi snapped. The remark turned the arguing parties red, Naruto from embarrassment at such a frank comment, and Kushina with fiery anger.

“Raichi-san, that is completely inappropriate.” Minato’s warned in an icy tone.

“Everyone, please settle down.” Izumi begged. Her head was starting to pound from dealing with such conflicting personalities. “Naruto-san, thank you for the demonstration. The three of us will confer and then complete our individual reports. Hokage-sama will contact you soon with more information. Any questions?”

“Uh, yeah, what do you guys think? How did I do?” Naruto asked, not able to hide the nervousness in his voice.

“That will be in the report, Naruto-san.” Izumi’s tone was firm.

“You were very impressive.” Minato commented with a smile to Izumi’s chagrin.

“Minato-kun!”

“Not bad, not bad at all.” Raichi admitted. Izumi was seething.

“You can go home now, Naruto-san.” Another suggestion that was really a command. “Please escort him, Kushina-san.” Izumi grounded out before glaring at her fellow examiners.

“Uh, right, I will do that Izumi-san. Raichi-san, good day to you both.” Kushina gave a short bow to the two. “I’ll see you later, Minato.” She smiled shyly at the blonde.

“Yes, I will see you two later.” Minato smiled gently at the girl, who’s smile dropped.

“R-right.”

Naruto almost felt bad for the girl. Almost.

“Alright! Let’s go get some ramen, Kushina-chan, my treat!” Naruto hooked his arm around the shorter kunoichi’s shoulder, who growled in disagreement, but surprisingly did not knock his arm away. “Later guys!” Dragging the red head away, he turned back to glance at the other blonde. His normally calm features once again marred by that unusual hardness.

Naruto cackled internally, a blonde idiot indeed!

* * *

“Well, what did you think?” Naruto asked his fellow ramen lover between slurps of broth.

“About?” Naruto loved that she ate like him. Most people found it annoying or disgusting, the way he made sounds when he ate and talked around bites, but she was like his mirror in that regard.

“My performance!”

“Hmm, genin level, maybe?” Naruto could feel her smirking into the ramen bowl.

“Oh, haha, very funny.” Naruto grumbled dourly, taking solace in his fish cake topping.

“Ah, don’t be like that.”

“You’re so mean to me, Kushina-chan, you can’t keep getting away with this just because you’re cute!” Naruto pouted.

“You don’t have to joke about that anymore.” Kushina commented, pulling back on the bowl of ramen and slurping down the remains. It left Naruto in awe that she could finish ramen faster than he could.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, saying I’m cute or whatever. I don’t think you’re an enemy anymore. You don’t have to keep mocking me. It’s not going to work anyway, so you’d better save your breath.”

Naruto stared at her in shock, his face furrowed into a deep frown. “I don’t…you thought I was joking this whole time?”

Kushina mirrored his frown. “Isn’t that what you were trying to do when we first met? The whole ‘her name is pretty, her hair is pretty’ routine? I thought you were trying to get information then and just kept it up cause you wanted to annoy me?”

Naruto could not lie that he did like frustrating her, but that was also because it was cute! Naruto never thought he would be in a predicament where a girl refused to believe his compliments.

“I, uh, I mean what I said.” Naruto found himself muttering. It was embarrassing to be so frank about it. Now, Naruto could see why she doubted him. Even if he meant what he said, it’s not like he was acting sincere about it.

Kushina snorted. “Yeah right! You like my hair? As if.” She took a sip of her water, trying not to get worked up by the blonde’s lies. There was only one boy’s opinion that should matter to her anyway.

“Why wouldn’t I like your hair? It’s gorgeous.” Naruto responded reflexively, his eyes wide.

“Liar.” She hissed, staring into her empty ramen bowl.

Kushina’s behaviour was confusing Naruto, but even more than that is was angering him.

“Hey, look at me!” Naruto growled, startling the red head. “What’s your problem?”

“You’re the one with a problem! Do you get your kicks saying weird stuff like that about my hair?” However, she did not pull her gaze away from his eyes this time.

Naruto tilted his head to the side, thinking. Why was she acting like this? Naruto unconsciously reached toward a strand of her brilliant crimson hair, intending to tuck it behind her ear, when Kushina flinched away from his hand, waking him from his daze.

“I get it now.” Naruto said gently, hit with an epiphany. “You don’t like it…your hair.”

“Fuck off.” There was murder in her eyes as she stood up ready to leave. Naruto quickly grasped her wrists.

“I’m serious! Your hair, your face, heck even the way you eat ramen is great to me!” Naruto tried his best to communicate his thoughts to her.

He could see her skin burn red, from anger, or embarrassment, probably both. She broke his hold and shoved him in the chest, causing him to fall of the stool, before storming off.

“Fuck!” Naruto grunted, clutching his chest. “Fucking masochist, Naruto.”

“Customer, are you alright?” The waiter rushed to check on the blonde.

“Yes, I’m alright, thank you.” Naruto rose to his feet, brushing off some dust.

“Well, I’m sorry you broke up with your girlfriend sir, but I’m going to need to you to pay for her bowl as well.”

“Right, no worries.” Naruto did not bother correcting the man, fishing out the appropriate amount. The waiter bowed graciously. Naruto let out a sigh of discontent as he began to leave the establishment. On his way another customer caught his eye, the man gave him a sympathetic smile.

“Some date, huh, kid?”

“Yeah, some date.” Naruto responded ruefully before exiting the building.


End file.
